Information may include publicly available information that can safely be made freely available to everyone without violating any confidences, as well as confidential information, which is information that should be held in confidence and provided only to one person or a very limited number of people. For example, general information about how to open an account at a financial institution may be considered to be publicly available information, while the account holdings of a single account at that financial institution may be considered to be confidential information to the account holder and the financial institution.
Another type of information is limited distribution information. Limited distribution information is information that may be safely disseminated to a class of users, and that may not be harmful to any one of those users if the information is distributed beyond those permitted to see it, but for which it is desirable to limit distribution only to that class or primarily to that class. For example, limited distribution information may include certain policies or procedures of a company that the company may not want to be known outside the class of people who are employees of the company. Limited distribution information is information for which limiting distribution of such information to the class is desirable.
In some cases, limiting distribution of such information to the class may be a goal, but one which, if not strictly met, is not considered to be harmful. For example, it may be permissible to distribute such information beyond the class as long as a reasonable attempt is made to prevent or limit such distribution beyond the class.
Social network applications may be used to disseminate information. Social network applications are applications that run under or in conjunction with a social network web site.
What is needed is a system and method that can provide such different types of information to appropriate individuals using a social network application.